Choosing right Prerequisites

Hi All,


Like all the rest of you I too am interested to enter the field of medicine.


I am now trying to gather as much information as possible to start with the prereq’s.


I have a BS in Computer Science and with 3.98 GPA. Currently I am working as a software engineer but I always wanted to go for the medical field since my childhood. And this is one country where it is possible to still be able to fulfil your dreams. So here I come


Now as part of my preparation I started lookinga the prerequisites and following are the ones that are recommended:

  • One year of General Biology with lab.

  • One year of General Chemistry with lab.

  • One year of Organic Chemistry with lab.

  • One year of Physics with lab (does not need to be calculus-based).

  • One year of English (66% of all schools).

  • College Math and/or Calculus (32% of all schools).

  • Humanities Electives (17% of all schools) .


    Although I have math, physics, and chemistry covered from my past degree I still would like to take them again to refresh my skills





    Now the question that I have is that I am not sure what type of Biology should I enroll in?


    I plan to do my prereqs from UNC Charlotte and following link gives you the list of Bio subjects. I am at a loss which one should I consider so that it would help with MCAT preparation as well.


    http://www.provost.uncc.edu/Catalogs/2005%2D2007/B…


    I have the same confusion for the chemistry courses. Any advise from anyone here would be much appreciated.


    Thanks

take any biology and chemistry that covers the material on the MCAT and requires you to think analytically and critically…


Blessings

Well you don’t want to waste your time with BIOL1110 because it states that it is for “Non majors”, which translates to mean “non science majors”.


Take the BIOL2120 & 2130 with their respective labs.


For chemistry, which one of these sounds like it’d be the one?


a. “For students not majoring in a Physical or Biological Science, Engineering, or science-oriented preprofessional program.”


b. “Primarily for nursing majors.”


c. “A principles-oriented course for science majors.”


Remember that as a premed you are basically a science major.

Go to the pre-med office or pre-med advisor and ask them which courses they recommend for pre-med students. Most universities will have a listing of courses that they recommend for the various pre-professional track students. While you may not need to take ALL of the courses that they recommend (some will be beyond what med schools require), you can feel fairly confident that whatever courses they list will meet the med schools requirement.


Also - the advice on taking ones geared towards science majors is generally correct. Courses geared towards non-majors or things like towards nursing majors generally don’t fulfill med school requirements.


Another course that you might want to add your list of courses that at least some portion of med schools require is Biochemistry.


Good luck!

I actually have a quick question related to pre-requisites too…right now it looks like I’m only going to get a B in pre-calc because I’m struggling with the material, and I know that a few B’s aren’t gonna kill me but I should limit them as much as possible, so that being said should I take the calculus at my school that’s designed for engineering majors and the like (only calculus class offered) or just wait until I transfer and take calculus for life science majors which will probably be less intensive?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen specific requirements on the type of calculus requirement. Just as med schools don’t require the more rigorous physics that physics and engineering majors take, I can’t imagine that they would require a more rigorous calculus. But, you might want to speak with an advisor and make sure that they will let you take the course for life-science majors after taking the harder course and that it will count towards your degree. THAT is probably a more important question than how the med schools will feel about it.

If I were you I’d rather wait and take the class that is less rigorous! I’ve never taken calculus (except from some basic stuff back in highschool) and I did just fine in all my science classes + Physical science section of MCAT. So I don’t think that taking the ‘easier’ calculus version is going to prevent you from performing well in your other classes and mastering the material.


Kasia

Oh ok, well if not taking calculus didn’t hurt you in learning physics then yeah I’m not going to worry about it. That was my main concern after a friend’s boyfriend telling me that they use a lot of calculus in physics.


If that’s not an issue, better to take the watered down calculus to maximize the chance of getting a good grade since it’s not like I’ll ever use that stuff anyway.

The physics requirement that pre-meds usually take is non-calculus based. Engineering majors and physics majors usually have to take a calculus based physics. Some people would argue that the calculus based physics is easier/makes more sense than algebra based physics, but if you loathe and despise calculus (as I did), it’s not worth it.


Again, med schools won’t care, just make sure that you have the classes you need for your degree.

  • Tim Said:
Oh ok, well if not taking calculus didn't hurt you in learning physics then yeah I'm not going to worry about it. That was my main concern after a friend's boyfriend telling me that they use a lot of calculus in physics.

If that's not an issue, better to take the watered down calculus to maximize the chance of getting a good grade since it's not like I'll ever use that stuff anyway.



Tim,

from what I know there are two 'kinds' of physics: algebra-based and calculus-based. I guess that 'old-school' physics was calculus-based. When I talked to couple of doctors who went to school years ago, they were surprised that you can actualy take physics and do well w/o calculus.

In my school the physcis that most pre-meds are encouraged to take is algebra-based. So I did just fine! Talk to someone who already took physics in your college to make sure, or e-mail the professor. Just for your information - the book I used was written by Giancoli. It had a quick tutorial at the end with some math material that might be hard for some students. I didn't have to use it...and I was not a math genius .

Good luck,

Kasia

I agree with Kasia. I’m also taking algebra-based Physics (we’re using Giancoli too). I can see how getting results to Physics problems would be greatly simplified if (1) your grasp of the math is solid, and (2) the physical concepts make intuitive sense to you. A lot of folks in my class had never had a Physics class, or (like me) had it in HS a LONG time ago. Chugging through the algebra & deriving equations from the ground up actually helps me tighten my grasp on the concepts. Having been shown by a friend how to use Calculus derivitives to get instantaneous satisfaction from problems that make for a lot of sticky algebra otherwise, I can see the value of the Calculus-based course. If I were doing my Bachelor’s over again, I would definitely opt for the Calculus. I can already imagine some circumstances in, say, Orthopedics or Radiology where plugging through a bunch of unwieldy algebra just isn’t a very efficient use of time. I sure as heck would not do it unless I felt pretty confident about my Calculus chops, however.


Tim

Sorry guys, I think there was a little confusion with what I said, hehe…what I meant was that I hate not understanding something so as a result of that, I hate pre-calc & trig. I’m assuming that since I’m only getting a B in pre-calc I’ll probably get a B in calculus so I’ll end up hating calculus…which is why I’m thinking about taking the watered down 3 unit per class “calculus for life science majors” sequence instead of the 5 unit per class “calculus” sequence which engineering majors have to take.


I will probably have to take calculus-based physics since that’s what UC Davis offers for biology majors…from the sounds of it, if algebra-based physics is that cumbersome then perhaps that’s a good thing. Hopefully the watered down calculus will be enough to get me through physics…I think 3 B’s for pre-calc & calc will be about all I’m willing to tolerate, heh.

Tim -


Calculus is an entirely different animal from pre-calc and trig. I HATED a lot of the trig concepts. Although I won’t say that I enjoyed calculus, I certainly liked it a lot better than pre-calc and trig (and found it easier, overall).

  • Emergency! Said:
Tim -

Calculus is an entirely different animal from pre-calc and trig. I HATED a lot of the trig concepts. Although I won't say that I enjoyed calculus, I certainly liked it a lot better than pre-calc and trig (and found it easier, overall).



Em, I can't even tell you how much that just cheered me up, 'cause I'm so disgusted and sick of pre-calc by now that I don't even want to study for the next exam. Exact same thing, the trig in pre-calc just plain pisses me off. Thanks!

I hated trig - HATED it - and I am actually of liking calc. I’m taking it online through the UIUC extension Netmath program. What’s cool about it is that it’s a Mathematica based class, so you don’t have all the stupid, annoying steps of solving long (boring, frustrating) equations. That was the part I hated about both algebra and trig - I’d make a tiny mistake somewhere, and have a completely wrong answer at the end - with no way to catch it. The Mathematica based Calc class helps you teach yourself the underlying principles and how to apply them to real-world problems. I highly recommend it to any smart, self-directed people that hated algebra and/or trig.


http://netmath.uiuc.edu/

Thanks. This is exactly what I was thinking about. I’m taking statistics online from my college and I love the way it’s structured. Which calc class are you taking? MATH 220 or 234?

All this feedback on trig and calc is fantastic! I just finished trig, and to say I hated it is an understatement. I was glad to be done with it, even with a B. I figured if I can get a B in a class I hate that much then the remaining science classes I seem to enjoy should be A’s. It seems that Calc is becoming more and more of a strongly encouraged class.


When I talked to my advisor I told her, “Just take the schools that strongly encourage or require calc off my list. I’m not going through another semester like the last.” She replied by telling me in this process I will have classes I hate, and find useless and also that Calc is easier for most than trig. So I said, “What the hell, put them back on the list.” So, roughly three weeks until the Calc game starts! I figured worse case scenario I’ll just have to pull out what’s left of my hair!


Greg

  • gsansing Said:
All this feedback on trig and calc is fantastic! I just finished trig, and to say I hated it is an understatement. I was glad to be done with it, even with a B. I figured if I can get a B in a class I hate that much then the remaining science classes I seem to enjoy should be A's. It seems that Calc is becoming more and more of a strongly encouraged class.

When I talked to my advisor I told her, "Just take the schools that strongly encourage or require calc off my list. I'm not going through another semester like the last." She replied by telling me in this process I will have classes I hate, and find useless and also that Calc is easier for most than trig. So I said, "What the hell, put them back on the list." So, roughly three weeks until the Calc game starts! I figured worse case scenario I'll just have to pull out what's left of my hair!

Greg



Greg, I completely agree with you, I was starting to think about not applying to med schools that encourage or require calc myself as a result of taking pre-calc. I ended up with a B in it myself (my guess anyway since I needed an 80 or better on the final to get an A and I'm sure I screwed up worse than that) and I was just happy to be done with it. I need a year of calc for my degree so I'm pretty much screwed regardless, lol. Hopefully calc won't be as bad and completely different from pre-calc like I keep hearing.

Sorry Crooz - I only just saw your question. I’m taking Math 220. It’s great, and I really recommend it - just keep in mind that it is very time consuming, and can be a little frustrating sometimes, because you have to figure out how to solve many of the problems basically on your own. But once you do, you’ll probably find that you understand the material much more thoroughly. It’s also a lot more fun than regular ‘sit in class and try to stay awake’ calculus. the problems are largely geared toward real-life situations, which is cool.

How are the proctored exams? I just took an online stats class and the exams were night & day compared to the quizzes and assignments. I’m not looking at going thru that again.


Can you elaborate on “time consuming” and “real life”? How much trig do I have to remember for it? Sorry for all the questions but I just need to be 99% sure it’s not like the course I just bombed.